Team building

Architect Lyndon Neri can get by on a mere three hours sleep a night. Which goes some way to explaining how he finds the time to handle such an incredibly diverse portfolio of creative work that includes a boutique hotel in Lhasa, a funky nightclub in Beijing, a China-made line of homeware, houses in Florida and Mexico, two cemeteries, and ongoing renovation work on the family home, a French-style villa in Shanghai.

Neri, 44, does have plenty of support though, in the form of about 120 staff drawn from 22 nationalities and crucially, from wife and business partner Rossana Hu, 41, also a trained architect. The pair met at college in California, worked in New Jersey for renowned architect Michael Graves, and later decamped to Shanghai after Neri completed work on the pioneering Three on the Bund lifestyle complex. In just five years, their eponymous business, Neri & Hu Design and Research Office (NHDRO) has grown at warp speed, taking on work in China, other parts of Asia, and further afield.

In addition to their core architectural practice, the ambitious pair also opened two up-market furniture and lighting stores, started a Neri & Hu homeware line with the mission of bringing modern interpretation to traditional Chinese design, and signed agreements with such major names as jeweller Swarovski and furniture-maker Moooi. Needless to say the couple, with three young children, possess bottomless reserves of energy and creativity. Neri in particular is a bustling ball of loquacious charm, with the infectious enthusiasm of someone who still finds the job a whole bunch of fun.'We have to take our opportunities, and right now China offers great opportunities,' says Neri. 'It is a place that is changing constantly; it is extraordinary. Some places, Rome for example, are frozen in time. Beautiful, but really like a museum. China is the place where history is being made; when working and living here, you are part of it and that is very exciting.

'We have to be selective with the work we take or, if we are not careful, we will end up stretching ourselves too thin. But the plus of having many opportunities is the fact that you can experiment more. In China you can see your work being realised a lot faster and you also have to be very creative to meet critical deadlines. The downside of moving too fast is you do not have much time to think, analyse and research. We do not like this, and thus we create a rigorous system within the office to ensure we have ample time for research.

'Even with the more conservative clients, we really push their comfort level and push the boundaries. Life is too short to be doing work that is not interesting, or have clients that just want you to be their drafting person. We are fortunate to have enlightened clients. If all they want is another copy of the Eiffel Tower or the White House, then we are not the right architects.' Research or construction is currently taking place on a richly varied array of different projects that include - take a deep breath - a 350-room chain hotel in Xian, boutique hotels in Shanghai and Lhasa, cemeteries in Suzhou and the Philippines, a new corporate office in Shanghai, design products for Swarovski and Mooi and a second branch of their swish furniture and lighting store, Design Republic.

People are still being wowed by the three NHDRO flagship projects in Beijing that have included formulating a plan to reconfigure the century-old former American embassy into a restaurant complex; converting a traditional home into a Whampoa Club restaurant; and responsibility for restaurants and a nightclub in the capital's most flamboyant hotel, the green-and-orange Opposite House.

When pressed, Neri concedes that the Whampoa Club is the company's proudest achievement to date, largely because it is so different to anything China has seen before. Neri and colleagues opted to put the main dining area in the basement of the old-style courtyard building, an unheard-of proposition that involved constructing a glass roof that allows diners to see starlight (or daylight). Clever interior lighting, including scores of candles, and lavish use of shiny silver fittings and fixtures make the room sparkle, ensuring that dinner is a magical affair.

The stunningly original concept is totally in synch with the pioneering Whampoa Club food of Hong Kong master chef Jereme Leung, renowned for his innovative dishes such as beancurd and vegetable roll with foie gras terrine, Beijing-style pork and bean jelly and, for people unafraid of a gastronomic experiment, cheesecake with Beijing pea custard.

Another restaurant, the Mediterranean-style Sure?o, with its breezy open plan design and easy terrace access, was part of the NHDRO design portfolio in the Opposite House, a new hotel from Japanese architect Kenzo Kuma. The designers were asked to come up with ultra-contemporary interiors for Sure?o, the northern Chinese restaurant Bei, and the after-hours club, Punk, whose dated-sounding name belies its funky design and popularity with the city's free-spending late-night crowd.'That is one of my favourite projects,' says Neri. 'The client, Swire Properties, was forward thinking and accepted a lot of our crazy ideas. Another favourite is our own house in Shanghai, a villa in the French concession; because it is always a work in progress and we never seem to agree!

'Most people who come and visit think we are crazy. For instance, we opened up our entire back wall and installed oversized windows and extremely tall glass doors with wood frames. These openings face our garden and the neighbours, and our living, dining, and family rooms literally open up to the public. After a few weeks, our neighbours started installing curtains to have their privacy. We are working on the second phase starting next year and I guarantee you that it will be a surprise.' That blurring of public and private areas will feature in an under-construction NHDRO boutique hotel in Shanghai, a 19-room property where guests will be able to peer into the public areas from slits in their room walls, an approach Neri describes as deliberately voyeuristic ('We all like to see people!').

Other work on the books in their home-city base includes a luxury residential apartment in the French Concession and master planning for a compound that will integrate 20 old-style houses into a luxury development with shops, restaurants and bars.

All in all, a rather busy time for the pair, who are in the happy position of being able to pick and choose the jobs they commit to. Neri, a Philippines-raised ethnic Chinese and Hu, who hails from Taiwan, are particularly pleased to be working in China, although their fluent understanding of eastern and western mindsets can be both a blessing and a curse. 'I don't get the benefits of being a local, and after living in so many places it can be frustrating, as there is no place I really call home,' says Neri. 'I carry the Chinese diaspora mentality. I was not born in China but I am very conscious of being Chinese, in some ways my upbringing was more traditional than in China itself.'